As volunteers, we dedicate our time here at HOPAD to spending time with the children, organizing activities, and working towards aiding the organization with any means of support.

The typical day begins with us waking up at about 6AM brushing our teeth, and getting the little ones to brush their own! It can be a bit of a struggle, as they often would rather try to sleep in, play silly games, or just outright not want to do it, but we end up getting it done, one at a time. This can take anywhere from 15min-30min, but once we make it through this point, it is on to the morning study time.

Each child tends to have their own pace as to how they learn, so it proves to be important that each one is approached in a different manner when they are trying to tackle the tasks given to them by their teachers. We sit around with all the kids in the study room, the older ones up at the desks, the younger ones scattered throughout. We sit here for about 2 hours listening to the repeated hymns of questions and answers, awaiting for a time that one would either like us to quiz them or explain what we can. Once again, some tend to get rowdy, so we’ve got to help them get back on track a bit.

Dal Bhat time! The first meal of the of the day, (which Didi and the older girls work so hard on!) starts roughly around 8:30AM. Now that everyone is happy and full, its a rush against the clock for the little ones to be ready for school! With the help of their older brothers and sisters, we generally make it out the door between 9-9:15AM. With about 10 kids fighting to hold your hands, we hike our way out to Eris Academy, passing by neighbors, dogs, chickens, cows, goats and just about anything else you can think of. Finally at school around 9:30AM, we wish the kids a good day and depart back to home. If we make it back soon enough, we even walk with the older kids to their school. They don’t need us to hold their hands, but they sure do enjoy the company!

Back home at last, but with with the remaining question; what do we do now? All are away at school, it is still so early in the day, and we have until 4PM to pick up the little ones. Well, it all depends on how each volunteer decides to spend that time. You can wash your clothes, you can go make your way into town a bit and explore, you can work on a website a bit *cough cough* or whatever suits your fancy, but before you even realize it, the day is almost over!

Time to run back to Eris Academy! You can walk too, it just depends on how excited you are to see the kids, we promise they’re excited to see you! After we’ve gathered them all, we march together down the hill back home by about 4:30PM for some Tifin. Even though we are done with reading books and answering questions, learning time isn’t over….its JUDO TIME!!! This is a great opportunity for many of the children, as there arent many other extracerricular activities and it pushes them to strive both physically and mentally. The really fun part is that we can even join in! Be warned, they are quite good. After sweating for a good hour or so, it’s back to an afternoon study time.

By now, it’s about 6PM and doing the same thing we did in the morning. Read, question, answer, repeat, support and love. With what seems like so much work throughout the day, it is so important that during this time where discipline needs to be reinforced, it is also important to love the kids and help them to believe that they can succeed.

Dal Bhat time! Again? Yes again, and it is actually really good. It is now about 8:30PM, study time is over for the day and all can enjoy a belly full of hot rice, veggies and lentil soup. There are those kids who push hard and study even after they eat, but for the little ones, it’s about all they can handle in a hard day’s work.

We help to go and get them ready for bed around 9-9:30PM, wish them some happy dreams, and head up to our rooms to do the same.

All in all, a typical day here is a pretty good one.